We were lucky enough to receive not one but two fantastic "Jack's Mega Machines" books in the post recently - and they're great as christmas presents. Alison Ritchie and Mike Byrne have been establishing something of a cult following for these books, and their innovative papercraft vehicles.

In "Jack's Mega Machines - Supersonic Submarine", Jack's fabulous magic garage plays host to a brilliant little yellow submarine - ready for undersea adventures as Jack winds up caught amidst a fabulous football competition with a pod of happy dolphins.

In "Jack's Mega Machines - The Mighty Monster Truck" Jack fixes up a cool pick-up that magically transforms into a fat-tyred mud-stomping monster truck, just in time to embark on a perilous mission to rescue a little monster from a treetop in a dark, dark forest.

Though these books are firmly pitched at vehicle-loving boys, Charlotte always enjoys reading the stories together and playing with the vehicles - letting her imagination fly as she makes up her own stories using the papercraft models.

As we've said in our previous reviews of these fabulous books, the models are fairly tricky to remove from the book at first (the sticky stuff is just a bit too sticky, and resulted in Jack's supersonic submarine losing a wing - despite me being extremely careful about removing the models from the back cover).

Rollicking stories, brilliant artwork. Begin your Jack's Mega Machines collection today!

Charlotte's best bit: The poor monster truck getting completely trashed in "The Mighty Monster Truck!"

Daddy's Favourite bit: Brilliant undersea adventures and dolphin fun in "Supersonic Submarine"

(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

As part of our run-up to Easter we are looking at books that make a far far better present than chocolate (though mums might not agree with me here!).

Nevertheless, ducky antics are on the schedule in this fantastic book from Alison Ritchie and Hannah George, "Duck Says Don't!"

It's time for Goose to go on holiday and she decides to leave Duck in charge of the pond while she's away.

Duck turns into a power-crazed quacker and soon mysterious signs start appearing all over the pond as Duck flexes his dictatorial muscles and starts bossing all the other pond-dwellers around.

"No Fishing!" says Duck, much to the puzzlement of the others.

"No Splashing!" (but splashing is SO much fun!)

"No Racing!" says Duck, upsetting the applecart.

In fact before long, the pond is awash with signs and one rather mean and surly duck ensuring that peace and tranquility are the order of the day, not fun and laughter.

The other animals are fed up to the back teeth (beak) with Duck's horrible behaviour and soon look for somewhere else to play. Duck gets his wish, a nice quiet pond to float around in. But is a quiet Pond really that much fun?

This tale is beautifully constructed and most mums and dads who've ever dealt with an annoying jobsworth in their workplace, or a deputy manager who goes crackers when the Boss is away, will laugh out loud at Duck's antics as he strives to make sure everyone does as they're told.

I'll leave you to discover what happens later on in the book.

Fantastic stuff from Alison and Hannah. Don't quack up, get "Duck Says Don't!"

Charlotte's best bit: Duck's rather fetching little sailor hat and the beautiful butterflies in the book

Daddy's favourite bit: Duck reminds me of so many people at my place of work though rather than impressive painted signs they tend to use post-it notes!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Little Tiger Press)

When ace mechanic Jack gets something to repair in his magic workshop, great adventures happen! We've already thrilled to the intergalactic thrills and spills of a superb race in "Jack's Mega Machines - The Rocket Racing Car" (which nabbed a well deserved Book of the Week award) so what's next for Jack and his faithful doggy sidekick? A trip back through time to the land of the DINOSAURS!

Jack has a digger in for repair, but this is no ordinary digger - and as he takes it through the doors of his magical workshop for a test drive, soon it's transformed into the Dinosaur Digger! A huge wheeled behemoth fit to take on just about any terrain, and armed with a handy scoop should Jack feel the need to dig a ditch or two while he's there.

Spotting a mini dinosaur stampede, Jack wonders why the baby dinosaurs are taking to their heels until he spots a terrifying T Rex, intent on bagging itself some tasty dino snacks for dinner.

Jack races to the rescue, but will the Dinosaur Digger be a match for the king of the dinosaurs himself?

Just like "The Rocket Racing Car" this is a fast paced story packed with thrills and spills, and once again you get a fantastic fold-out card model of The Dinosaur Digger to play with while you read (and once again we had the devil's own job extracting the model from the book - that sticky stuff just did not want to give way and again we lost a smidge of the model's external 'paintwork' prying it out of the book, gah!)

Fantastic colourful illustrations by Mike Byrne keep things nicely energetic. Though it's mainly pitched at boys, Charlotte absolutely loved this just like she loved "The Rocket Racing Car" and demanded it again once we'd finished reading it (so how about swapping one of those boys on the back cover for a girl next time?)

Charlotte's best bit: The cute baby dinosaurs - How could the nasty T Rex consider eating them?

Daddy's favourite bit: A great little model - the more of these I see, the more they remind me of mini kid-friendly Carmageddon models! Brilliant stuff!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books) 

We're back, did you miss us while we were away on our short break with sporadic internet access (Read: TheStrollingMum monopolising the iPad so I couldn't get any reviews done). Coming back from holiday we had a lovely parcel waiting for us from Simon and Schuster Children's Books containing two of their latest titles. We'll get to the other one in good time, but first we'll take a look at Jack's Mega Machines: The Rocket Racing Car.

Jack is an ace mechanic, and is interested in all sorts of machinery (in fact this is the first of a series of books where Jack explores all sorts of cool and interesting vehicles from racing cars to diggers). Every time he gets something to fix in his garage, he knows adventures are just through the garage doors.

Fixing up a racing car, Jack takes it for a test drive and it magically transforms into the Rocket Racing Car. It can fly, it can zoom, it's the fastest thing in the cosmos!

Entering a race with a whole team of wild and whacky aliens, Jack finds he'll need more than sharp driving skills and quick wits to survive in an outer-space race. Soon he's in at the deep end, requiring his tool kit as well as his fantastic rocket racing car.

Does Jack win the race? Or does he win a lot of friends along the way?

This book is beautifully put together. Some might say it's a bit boy-centric but Charlotte loved it, particularly the beautiful bit of paper engineering at the back, your very own fold-out Rocket Racer to build and fly around the living room (the sticky bits on this take some prying off so take care not to damage your book - and take care that you remove all of it and don't end up with the back page stuck to the back cover like we did, DOH!)

A fabulous energetic story, with fantastic illustrations and a great little model to play with too. Absolutely zoomtastic!

Charlotte's best bit: Without a doubt, the model racer, which she has spent a lot of time 'flying' around the living room with - and handily is just big enough to fit a Playmobil figure. Very cool!

Daddy's favourite bit: I loved the martian monster truck. I could do with one of those for the morning commute / school run.

A ReadItDaddy Book Of the Week!